Rahul shuts doors on BSP-SP, says Congress will contest with full might

Lucknow, Feb 11 (IANS) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday virtually shut the doors on the BSP and Samajwadi Party and said that while he respected their leaders Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, there should be no doubt that his party will fight the coming Lok Sabha polls with "its full might and ability" in Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing Congress workers at the party office, the Gandhi scion said that the time had come when the ideology of the Congress should be resurrected in the state and added, while gesturing towards party General Secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia, that these people had been sent to Uttar Pradesh not just for the Lok Sabha polls but to also ensure that the Congress "forms the next state government".

"We will yield not an inch on our ideology. The people of the state have suffered a lot, they have tried and tested every party and the Congress will have to form the next government for the sake of progress and prosperity of Uttar Pradesh," he declared as the workers applauded amid slogans of "Rahul Bhaiyya, Rahul Bhaiyya".

Exhorting party activists to work hard for the electoral battle that lies ahead, he pointed out that it was a "fight between an ideology and unity and brotherhood on one side and the RSS, BJP and Narendra Modi's divisive and hate-centred politics on the other".

He assured the party workers that leaders will not be "air-dropped any more" and that the grassroot workers would be encouraged.

He again trained his guns on Prime Minister Modi for alleged corruption.

Gandhi said that there was no dearth of issues to put the Modi government on the mat -- be it farm loan waiver, promised jobs and even corruption. Modi had let down the people of all sections of the society, the Congress leader said at the end of a roadshow of his sister Priyanka Gandhi and Scindia.

"Loans of no farmer has been waived but his industrialist friends have got benefits from the Prime Minister. Two crore jobs were promised every year but nothing has happened."

Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, he imitated Modi's style of speech and said that while earlier he used to speak with his head held high and his 56-inch chest pumped up, now he spoke with his head down.

"He is on the defensive, his hollowness has been exposed before the whole country," Gandhi said.